Drake Teases ‘Views From The 6’ During Show-Stopping SXSW Set

Drake shut it down at SXSW on Saturday night and teased his long awaited album, Views From The 6, USA Today Reports.

Drake, who is also called the ‘6 God’ in reference to his hometown of Toronto, made a surprise appearance at the Fader Fort concert at South by South West much to the delight of his fans assembled there.

“I got nothing else to do but be here with you all in Austin,” Drake reportedly shouted before performing a long list of his hits, like “Energy,” “Know Yourself,” “Jumpman,” “Big Rings,” “Back to Back” and “Summer Sixteen.”

According to Entertainment Weekly, Fader Fort attendees were promised a surprise guest performance all week and they had high expectations considering Miley Cyrus was the surprise guest last year. There had been rumors for weeks that Drake would make an appearance but all of that was confirmed when “Champagne Papi” took to the stage.

Entertainment Weekly reports that Drake told the crowd he was going to give them “something to sing along to,” and launched into his Meek Mill diss track “Back to Back.”

“Views From the 6 coming in how many weeks I hope you enjoy that s—,” he said to the crowd, before ending his set with “Summer 16,” and announcing that he will be going on tour soon.

He didn’t offer a concrete release date for the new album, but Drake confirmed via Instagram that Views will be dropping in April as he promised in January.

Though there’s technically no release date yet, Drake and his long time producer, Noah “40” Shebib have been dropping hints here and there about what fans can expect from the album.

“It’s going to be what everybody expects and wants from Drake and from us,” Mr. Shebib said in an interview with The New York Times. “A lot of introspection, very vivid. He’s discovering new flows, new cadences, new patterns.”

And we can also expect the music behind Drake’s raps to push the boundaries as well, 40 said.

“I’m trying to find ways to pull more untraditional sounds in, to push the boundaries a little further,” he said. “Something about it should be special.”

In his Fader cover story Drake also hinted that he may be experimenting with dancehall beats on Views From The 6.

“‘I love dancehall flows, especially as of late,” he said. “I pretty much won’t even rap on a beat unless it’s got some magic element of new tempo or new pocket, where I hear myself and feel like I’ve stumbled upon something new.'”

Drake also said that Views will be a lot more “refined” than his previous effort If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.

“By the standard I hold myself and 40 to, [If You’re Reading This] is a bit broken,” Drake said. “There’s corners cut, in the sense of fluidity and song transition, and just things that we spend weeks and months on that make our albums what they are.”

There’s also some speculation that there could be a Kanye West feature on Views. Drake lent a hand writing for Kanye for The Life of Pablo, so there are rumors that West might return the favor.

Drake would come by and just help, no strings. Future also came by to write. We all got new shit together that’s gonna drop soon.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 18, 2016

There are also rumors that Kendrick Lamar might be making an appearance on Views From The 6 as well. XXL Mag reports that Drake posted a photo on Instagram on March 18 that looks a lot like footage that recently surfaced of Kendrick in the studio. In the footage Kendrick is counting a stack of $2 bills much like the stack in the 6 God’s photo.

The last time Kendrick Lamar and Drake worked together was for “Poetic Justice,” a song that appeared on Kendrick’s album, Good Kid, Maad City.

[Photo by John Phillips/ Getty Images]